About

The Gothic Imagination is based at the University of Stirling, Scotland and provides an interdisciplinary forum for lively discussion and critical debate concerning all manifestations of the Gothic mode. Queries to Dr Timothy Jones on timothy.jones@stir.ac.uk.

2012 May

Are you an international student who is interested in pursuing a course of PhD study in the Gothic at Stirling? Are you a post-doctoral researcher with an interest in Gothic? Stirling University is pleased to announce the advertising of 8 Fellowships and 10 International Scholarships, along with various Collaborative and Partnership Studentships
Interested parties can find further details here.
Fellowships
Prospective candidates are advised to identify and approach a mentor in advance of submitting their application and may approach academic colleagues directly without going through t

The run of Hamlet at the Young Vic theatre earlier this year has been widely condemned by critics, some of whom were as cruel as to announce that ‘Michael Sheen could be right up there among the great Hamlets but director Ian Rickson’s gimmicky production is a disaster’ (Charles Spencer, The Telegraph) and that ‘I have never left a production of Hamlet feeling as irritated and cheated’. In fact, all that reviewers seem able to agree on is that it was a horrible idea but that Michael Sheen was brilliant, a compliment for him at least. I would argue that not only was Michael She

Gothic Technologies/Gothic Techniques
Biennial Conference of the International Gothic Association, 2013
August 5 – 8, 2013: University of Surrey, United Kingdom
Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Professor Roger Luckhurst (Birkbeck College, University of London), Professor Fred Botting (Kingston University), other Keynotes TBA
Recent Gothic studies have foregrounded a plethora of technologies associated with Gothic literary and cultural production. Its presence is witnessed in how techno-science has contributed to the proliferation of the Gothic: the publishing and print culture disseminat

David J. Jones, Gothic Machine: Textualities, Pre-Cinematic Media and Film in Popular Visual Culture, 1670-1910 (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011)
Reviewed by Xavier Aldana Reyes, University of Lancaster
As someone who is interested in the technological side of gothic, I was naturally attracted to the idea behind David J. Jones’ new book. Largely centred on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with their plethora of pre-cinematic media that blur the boundaries between magic, optical illusion and spectacle, Gothic Machine does not disappoint. Following the lead of recent pub

10th NEICN CONFERENCE
North East Irish Culture Network in Association with the Scottish Irish Network (SIN) and the University of Sunderland.
Call for Papers:
Following the success of the previous nine international Irish Studies conferences, this year the University of Sunderland, in association with NEICN, invites papers for an interdisciplinary conference, which will run from 9th to 11th November 2012.
The conference organisers hope to represent a wide range of approaches to Irish and Scottish culture from academics and non­-academics alike. Performances, roundtables, collaborative projects, and other non­-traditional presentations are encouraged in addition to conference papers. We welcome both individual submissions and proposals for panels. In connection with the conf

Are you interested in our MLitt in The Gothic Imagination? DO you hold, or intend to hold, a first class honours degree? The University of Stirling is offering any UK or European Union student with a First Class Honours degree a £2,000 scholarship to study full-time on any taught postgraduate course or £1,000 for part-time study.
This scholarship will be awarded in two instalments at the end of each of Semester.
To find out more on how to apply, please contact: graduate.admissions@stir.ac.uk
Please note that award of this scholarship cannot be combined with any other scholarship or fee waiver awards.

As Filhas do Fogo (1978), or The Daughters of Fire, is exemplary of the Gothic’s transnational characteristics. The film portrays two young women whose stay at a colonial manor in the Brazilian countryside is afflicted by paranormal events and mysterious deaths. In the course of the narrative, they become acquainted with a mysterious family friend, an elderly lady who claims to record the voices of the dead. Soon, the female characters find themselves haunted by the ghost of one of the girls’ mothers. Whilst the dividing line between this world and the next is obscured, family secrets are revealed and the situation escalates to a nightmarish finale. Ultimately, the luxuriant Brazilian forest envelops the entire house and the remnants of the eerie life and death spectacle that occurred there. Brazilian filmmaker Walter Hugo Khouri (pronounced 'Curry') is no stranger to the horror genre; his previous films Estranho Encontro (1958) and O Anjo da Noite (1974) are - alongside José Mojica Marins’ Coffin Joe trilogy - among some the most significant Brazilian horror productions.
Lesbians and unvoiced others: from domesticity to nationhood
The situation experienced by three female characters in the film foregrounds issues of particular interest to discourses of gender, race, and nationhood. The assonance in their names (Ana, Diana, Mariana) suggests they can be seen as interrelated characters that represent different aspects of problems concerning the situation of the woman in society (fig.1). More to the point, a society that condemns women’ relationships with members of their own sex (Ana), motherhood and pregnancy as a problematic relationship with body (Diana) and a culture that determines women’ entrapment in the domestic sphere (Mariana).
(fig.1 - Ana, Diana and Mariana: tripartite female psyche)
Set in an unnamed community in the countryside of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, As Filhas do Fogo stands out from the majority of Khouri’s production, usually set in the urban environment of São Paulo city. The particularity of the location is emphasised by means of scenes that focus on the frosty climate of southern Brazil, the predominantly European heritage of its inhabitants and lines such as ‘your house looks like a little castle’, in reference to the Germanic architecture brought by the immigrants that populated the region. This representation seeks to tr

About

The Gothic Imagination is based at the University of Stirling, Scotland and provides an interdisciplinary forum for lively discussion and critical debate concerning all manifestations of the Gothic mode. Queries to glennis.byron@stir.ac.uk or dale.townshend@stir.ac.uk